Finally Finished It

[Hank Knight]

Thanks Hank.  The expansion slides are typical German quality - excellent.  They slide as smoothly as any drawer slide I've worked with.  You can open/close the table alone by just picking up one end and pulling it out or pushing it in with no binding or sticking.  However, they still aren't perfect.  After I put the table together, I noticed a sag in the center, even with no leaves installed.  As rigid as they are, there is still about a 1/16" sag in the middle whether the table is closed or fully extended.  I looked for some adjustment to the slides to compensate for it, but there is none.  I think I could remove the sag by shimming under the table panels and leaves, but it's a little late for that now.  

John

Thanks for the reply, John. I thought about building an expansion table for my daughter recently, but went with a simple design instead. I'll file away your wonderful table in the event I revisit the expansion table idea.
Again. very nice table.

[Howard Pollack]

Indeed, a beautiful table!  You do very nice work!  
Can you tell us where you purchased the slide mechanism, and if you were to do it again would you use the same slide?  Thanks.  -Howard

[jteneyck]

Indeed, a beautiful table!  You do very nice work!  
Can you tell us where you purchased the slide mechanism, and if you were to do it again would you use the same slide?  Thanks.  -Howard

Thanks very much, Howard.  The slide mechanism is from Poettker USA.  A small portion of their slides are sold by Lee Valley.  LV did not carry a unit that would fit my table, so I contacted Poettker directly.  Here's the contact person:  heath@us.poettker.com . Very helpful guy, very professional outfit.  

Yes, I'd use Poettker slides again.  They are so smooth and they will not be effected by changes in humidity like wooden ones, which was a big concern for me with the table being in the DC area where it gets pretty humid in the Summer.  

Poettker makes different categories of slides, something like Good, Better, Best.  They offered me a set of slides at about half the cost of the ones I used, but I went with the Best to minimize any performance issues.  LV carries some of those lower cost slides, though still not cheap.  If you want to build an extension table, I would go directly to Poettker to determine your options.  Maybe you'll be able to use a stock unit.  If not, they can build a custom unit for you, like they did for me.  

John

[ajkoontz]

Stunning!

etc etc etc

[Howard Pollack]

Thanks very much, Howard.  The slide mechanism is from Poettker USA.  A small portion of their slides are sold by Lee Valley.  LV did not carry a unit that would fit my table, so I contacted Poettker directly.  Here's the contact person:  heath@us.poettker.com . Very helpful guy, very professional outfit.  

Yes, I'd use Poettker slides again.  They are so smooth and they will not be effected by changes in humidity like wooden ones, which was a big concern for me with the table being in the DC area where it gets pretty humid in the Summer.  

Poettker makes different categories of slides, something like Good, Better, Best.  They offered me a set of slides at about half the cost of the ones I used, but I went with the Best to minimize any performance issues.  LV carries some of those lower cost slides, though still not cheap.  If you want to build an extension table, I would go directly to Poettker to determine your options.  Maybe you'll be able to use a stock unit.  If not, they can build a custom unit for you, like they did for me.  

John

Thanks John.  I appreciate your helpfulness.  -Howard